Carrot Cake Cookie Sandwiches with Cream Cheese Filling

Method

1. Melt the dough butter in a small pan over low heat for 1 min 30 sec, then pour it into a large bowl and let it cool until it feels just warm to your finger.

   Add in this stepUnsalted butter (for the dough) 55 g

   low heat

2. Add both sugars, the weighed beaten egg and the vanilla to the butter and whisk for 30 seconds until glossy. Add the flour, oats, bicarbonate of soda, most of the cinnamon and the salt and stir with a spatula. Wrap the grated carrot in kitchen paper, squeeze out the liquid firmly and add it with the walnuts; mix well. The dough will look soft, which is normal. Cover and chill for 20 min; it firms up and becomes much easier to shape.

   Add in this stepLight brown soft sugar 65 gCaster sugar 20 gBeaten egg, weighed (1 medium egg is about 50 g) 30 gVanilla extract ½ tspPlain flour 100 gRolled oats 30 gBicarbonate of soda ½ tspGround cinnamon ¾ tspSalt 1 pinchCarrot, very finely grated 80 gWalnuts, finely chopped 20 g

3. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan ovens 20 °C lower) for 15 min.

   oven

4. Line 1 baking tray(s) with baking paper. Scoop the dough into heaped spoonfuls of about 1½ tablespoons (you want 4 per serving), roll into balls, place on the tray and press lightly with your palm to 1.5 cm thick. Leave at least 5 cm between them because they spread.

5. Bake in the oven. With two trays, bake them one after the other; the total time is 11 min. Take them out when the edges are golden and set but the centres still look slightly underdone; they turn chewy as they cool. Leave on the tray for 5 min until firm, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

   oven

6. Beat the softened filling butter with the sifted icing sugar and the rest of the cinnamon until smooth, then add the cold cream cheese and beat for 1 min, just until smooth. Overbeating makes it runny.

   Add in this stepUnsalted butter (for the filling), softened 20 gIcing sugar 50 gGround cinnamon ¼ tspFull-fat cream cheese, cold 100 g

7. Pair the cooled cookies by size. Pipe or spoon a generous amount of filling onto the flat side of half of them, top with the rest and press gently. Chill for 15 min to firm up the filling before eating.